End of time
by annie93
Summary: They should have listened when Arthur said he hadn't felt good about the job. Quick songfic - hope you enjoy :)
1. Chapter 1

**Until the end of time**

**Chapter 1**

A breathy gasp escaped her lips as she felt her body falling. Weightless. Backwards. Almost like a kick.

And yet she felt nothing. Nothing at all.

She barely felt herself hitting the ground; the back of her head hitting the concrete that had been beneath her feet only a moment before. She didn't hear the bullet casings hitting the ground; she didn't hear the people that had been bustling around her scream. She didn't hear her name yelled, by the two men outside the building.

All she heard was all the air from her lungs being pushed out of her lips and then … nothing.

She placed her hand on chest as she fell. Still falling. It was warm…there was something warm on her fingers. She raised her arm up to look at it but had to blink, unable to see it. A mess of colours and no defined edges. Smudged water paint at best.

She blinked and finally saw the red on her hand. The frank red blood that covered her fingers. The same colour as her jacket.

Her arm fell, like she had. Hitting the ground hard beside her.

She stated at the tall ceiling white dots dancing on her pupils.

_**If I should die this very moment**_

Her chest heaved up and down and she was vaguely aware of her laboured breathing.

And then suddenly she could hear everything. Everything. People's cries, screams, yells. It was so loud. Too loud. Her head was bursting and she wanted the silence, yearned for the silence back. Please.

"_ARIADNE"_

It was familiar. The sound, the voice. Her head lolled to the side and gave a sharp twinge in protest. But it was soon forgotten when she saw him. He was there. She could see him. Her eyes fixed on him even though he was still slightly blurry. But there was no mistaking his sharp figure – he was there. Going away from her?

He was being pulled away.

No…no…no…no…no…no

She needed him, didn't they know she needed him. Didn't they know?

"ARIADNE" his eyes met hers and a million words were exchanged between them. Every feeling. Every fear. Every piece of their vulnerable hearts right in that moment was shown to the other. She held his gaze. He was the one to break it. He turned to push off another man trying to drag him away. Away from her. She didn't like that man. She needed him, didn't he know that.

But he was there. She watched him fight. She watched him yell and protest and fight. He was there.

He was there for her. With her. He was there. And that was all she needed to know.

_**I wouldn't fear**_

She wasn't scared. She didn't feel scared. Or sad. Or hurt. She didn't feel.

She was numb.

But he was there and that was all that mattered. He was there. She was safe.

With him she was safe.

She watched him push off more men. Fighting for her. She felt her back warm slightly and frowned wondering why for a second. Only a second.

"ARIADNE!" she looked back up to see him. Slamming through the glass doors. Gun in hand. The others behind him. Eames..Roberts...Guns. The door shattered as it rebounded off the wall at the force he'd pushed it open with. She watched the shards of glass bounce off the ground, glittering in the dun. A shot echoed in her head and watched Arthur raise his gun again,

Where was her gun? Where was…? Where was she?

Shots were fired and she heard each of them hit their targets, she watched the casings hit the ground, lying with the glass and with her. She heard the screams get louder and the cries and she heard her wheezy breath. But her eyes stayed on him. And finally he turned back to her. His dark eyes raked over her body. Finding her eyes. Meeting her gaze.

**For I've never known completeness like being here**

He landed on his knees beside her. She heard them hit the ground with a thud. She watched the red seep into the fabric and wondered how he was going to get the stain out, why wasn't he more concerned? What was it? But she looked up again when she felt him. He placed his hands on her cheeks on either side of her face,

"_Ari, love I'm here_" he stroked her cheeks. She wanted to reach out and touch him. She could feel him but he sounded so far away. He looked like he was there, in front of her. But his voice…it was so quiet, like he was in another room. She needed to get to him.

His hands were so warm on her skin. She was so cold. She was cold. She was freezing. His hands were warm.

"_I'm right here Ariadne hold on, hold on we'll get you out of here. Stay with me alright" _she looked up at him, peered into his eyes that were stormed with concern and fear and worry. But there was love too. She could see it.

"_I'm here Ari. I'm not going anywhere. I'm here love stay with me"_ he repeated in a fierce whisper,

**Wrapped in the warmth of you**

Nothing else mattered, she couldn't see or feel or hear anything else in that moment. Just his hands on her face. Caressing her face, brushing her hair away from her eyes. She could see just his eyes. Nothing else.

"_I'm here Ari just breathe. Breathe Ari. We've got you. It's okay"_

It was then that Eames appeared on the other side of her and she looked at him quickly,

"_How you doing darling? You just can't keep yourself out of trouble can you?" _he said throwing her a smile. She tried to smile back, reassure him. She could see the strain in his eyes, he was worried. It didn't suit his face and always caused her to worry. What had happened? She needed to ask. But as she opened her mouth the pain that erupted in her throat and her chest was unlike anything she'd ever felt.

**Loving every breath of you**

"_No Ariadne shhh..shh it's okay, don't try to talk love okay. Just breathe Ari" _she should have known. Known that it would hurt. She felt pressure on her stomach. Hard. She wanted to squirm away but her body, she couldn't move it. She couldn't feel the rest of her body.

Panic.

She couldn't wiggle her toes, she couldn't feel her legs. She could feel wetness on her face. It hurt so much. All of it. Everywhere. But then he was there again. Bent over her body until his face was but inches away from hers. She could feel his hot breath on her lips as he breathed.

He breathed for her.

"_Breathe Ariadne, I need you to breathe, it's okay. I'm right here just breathe with me Ari" _he coaxed and she watched a tear drop from the corner of his eye. As if in slow motion she watched it form into a perfect raindrop and then drop until she felt it shatter on her forehead. She felt it run down the side of her face. More followed, streams of tears. But when she looked back up at him he wasn't crying.

**Still my heart this moment**

She wanted it to stop. She looked at him begging him. Make it stop.

It hurt, it all hurt, she could feel the pain. Everything hurt. Her stomach, her eyes, her chest, her throat, her arms; she was on fire. There was so much pain.

And more. There was more. There was so much pain in his eyes. It made it almost unbearable to look into them. Her heart was racing.

But she was with him. He was there. He loved her. She could feel his body, she could smell the scent that was undeniably Arthur. She could feel his hands on her face. Hear his voice, pleading her to keep her eyes open. To stay with him.

Didn't he know she would always be with him? Didn't he know that she would never leave him, always love him.

**Oh it might burst**

She needed him.

She loved him.

Didn't he know?

Hadn't she told him enough?

She had to tell him. Now she had to tell him.

She opened her mouth ignoring the slicing pain.

"_I ...I_" He shook his head,

"_No Ari please don't talk. They're coming love. Just hold on they're coming. The paramedics they're nearly here WHERE ARE THEY?"_ he yelled frantically his neck snapping the opposite way and she tried to shake her head. It didn't work.

"_I lo_.." She took a deep breath,

"_I love you"_ he stopped talking, he stopped yelling, he stopped everything. And stared at her.

"_No_!" His voice was low yet so forceful,

"_No...do not say that like you're saying goodbye"_ he commanded and she frowned. Goodbye? She would never say goodbye. Not to him. She loved him. Why would she say goodbye?

His lips were against hers briefly. Her thoughts vanished.

"_I love you too Ariadne. God I love you_"

**Could we stay right here till the end of time?**

She wanted him- she could see the love, hear his love. For her

_I love you too Ariadne. _She breathed again. He knew. That was all that mattered. And then...

Then the world started spinning faster and faster and faster until it exploded into bright lights and she clamped her eyes shut. She couldn't see his face but even when she shut her eyes the darkness didn't come, all she could see was white. Blinding, bright, painful white.

**Till the earth stops turning**

"_ARIADNE NO...ARI OPEN YOUR EYES. ARI...NO PLEASE ARIADNE PLEASE OPEN YOUR EYES_" she couldn't ignore it. Not him. She couldn't, so she opened her eyes. It hurt, it hurt more than words could say but she focused on his eyes. His eyes.

"_Good girl just stay with me sweetheart_" he said running his hand across her cheek.

All the lights faded. Time stopped. The sound faded again. Everything stopped. He was with her. Everything was okay. His words finally caught up with her and suddenly she was scared.

Where was she going? She didn't want to go. She wanted to stay. With him. With him. Forever. She didn't want to go anywhere.

**Wanna love you till the seas run dry**

She wanted to tell him how much she loved him.

Kiss him in the mornings and at night.

Love him unconditionally forever.

Start a family with him.

Love him. Over and over and over.

**I've found the one I have waited for **

It was him all along, it was him. She'd suspected it when he'd taught her how to dream, how to live, how to truly live. Once Cobb had introduced the impeccably well dressed man – Arthur.

_Arthur._

She had waited for so long. Holding onto the tiny promise her father had once made her. The one that had assured her that she was going to find a man to look after her, to look after, who would love her no matter what. Like in the fairy tales. Like he did.

She had waited, her hope wavering, her hope dimming, fading.

And he'd been right there. The whole time.

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**Hey everyone! I really hope you like it I know it's a bit weird but I've been wanting to try it.**

**Song: if i should die Lamb-Gorecki**

**Please let me know what you think! Review? :)**

**Next chapter?**


	2. Chapter 2

**Til the end of time**

**Chapter 2**

**All this time I've loved you**

She wasn't sure how long it had been. How long it had been since she'd entered the building, since she'd hit the ground. Since Arthur had dropped to his knees beside her. She let her gaze drop from his eyes to the floor. The stain on his knees, what she knew was blood, her blood, had climbed up the fibres of expensive material growing larger and larger. Yet he didn't seem concerned. The room was still spinning but she tried her hardest. She drew every ounce of energy she had left in her body to keep her eyes open. Like he'd asked, she'd try for him. She'd do anything for him. She briefly let her eyes flicker to Eames on the other side of her who was speaking rapidly into his phone that was clutched in his left hand. Her hand was tightly enclosed within his other one. She couldn't make out the words he was saying it was all a blur.

A finger caressed her cheek and it burned her skin. It was like hot iron and her eyes met Arthurs stare once again. He was talking but she couldn't hear him. Her eyes focused on his lips, squinting yet it didn't help her make out the words he was saying. What was happening to her?

She stared into his deep eyes that held so much emotion and found herself lost in them. She loved his eyes, she always had. They'd always told her anything she needed to know, always been her way in, always provided her with a window into what was going on in his complex mind. She loved his eyes, she loved him. She'd always done. She wasn't sure how long for, when it actually became love but she knew it was likely longer than she'd ever realised. He had of course interested her to begin with, so calm, collected, knowing. Plus he knew of the dreaming world and she was Alice who had just jumped into the rabbit hole. While Cobb had taught her about architecture in dreaming it was Arthur who'd taught her to dream itself. And my was it more than she'd ever thought it could be. She had gone back, after her studies, after she'd graduated. She'd cornered Arthur and asked him how to find work.

She was pulled from her thoughts, feeling Eames give her hand a squeeze while Arthur had began to stroke her cheek once again and was speaking slow words to her. But the world continued to spin and get colder and colder. It was only then that she realised how hard and uncomfortable the ground beneath her was and her eyelids grew even heavier, wanting to close.

But she would fight to keep them open. Because he asked her to, and she loved him.

She always had.

**And never known your face**

If someone had told her when she began her degree that by the time she had finished she would know another world, would have altered her entire life plan to incorporate working within her own mind and would have fallen completely, irrevocably in love. She most likely would have scoffed, if she'd been listening, too absorbed in her studies and Parisian life.

Her eyes fluttered open once again and his face swam before her, when they closed again she could still see it. Images of the first time they had met, of following Cobb from the college into a deserted warehouse to meet an impeccably well dressed man who was rather handsome and had two cherry-like dimples that framed his smile.

Arthur.

After than he'd been there all along. Teaching her, guiding her, commenting on her work. Congratulating her, warning her, cursing Eames. His absence was very much noted in the months after the Fischer job. But once graduation rolled around and the point man was forced to stop ignoring her plans to return to the dream world he became a constant in her life once more. And there he'd stayed.

While she'd certainly been aware of him. She'd never truly thought it could be him – could be Arthur. That he could be the one for her, the one to take her out and blow her cynicism about dating right out the window – perhaps the word courting would be more appropriate to Arthur. Evermore a gentleman. No he'd been her colleague and her teacher and then her friend and even somewhat of a brother but then he'd become something different. She wasn't sure what had caused it, caused her thoughts to change. Thoughts of him. What had happened to cause him to take over her mind.

A strike of pain sliced through her chest and it heaved as she attempted to suck in air, any air, into her lungs. She could hear her own breathing, rasping. And she saw Arthur's eyes grow wider as her own bulged with the lack of oxygen. It wasn't working. She tried to raise her hands to her throat to get rid of whatever was on it, whatever was crushing it but she couldn't. She couldn't move. She couldn't breathe. Her head span and the room span faster as more light erupted behind her eyes. Arthur's face became blurry and fear built up inside of her. She needed him, need to see him.

**All this time I've missed you**

Her face became numb and she winced as pins and needles erupted on her skin pricking and pinching it. She tried to squirm away from the painful sensation forgetting she couldn't move. Dark eyes came back into focus and she gazed into them. All of a sudden sound erupted in her ears and she clamped her eyes closed as they began to sting mercilessly. Then everything went silent again.

She could hear the world around her and then she couldn't, it went in and out like driving through the Alps with the radio on.

But she could still see Arthur. He was still there with her. She couldn't believe how much time she'd lost, wasted, missed. Time together. Time. She needed more time. They needed more time.

**And searched this human race**

Michael, Jack, Mark, Penny's friend, the guy she'd met at the art gallery. He'd been right in front of her the whole time. Laughing at her jokes, teasing her alongside Eames (when they weren't teasing him of course), taking out Phillipa and James with her, dreaming with her, waking up with her.

She'd thought of it of course, her and Arthur, but had never pursued it, not at the start at least. He was her colleague and even beyond that he was….Arthur. She'd recalled the feel of his lips against her more than once before they'd got together but had always reminded herself that he'd simply been doing his job – being the point man.

_It was worth a shot._

Another wave of cold washed over her body and she wondered if she was shaking but all she could do was grip Arthur and Eames' hands in her own as tight as she could.

**Here is true peace**

With him she knew she was okay. He understood her, they understood each other. They got each other, they knew each other. Solved and completed the other. Pushed and complemented the other. Soothed and fixed each other.

They filled the gap of family, of love. They were each other's family. Together along with the rest of the team of course. Together they were happy, peaceful, content.

Arthur slowly learned to let her in, to share himself and open up to the idea that he did not have to be alone. That he could have that life. Not that Ariadne was ever going to back down once he'd given her an inch. And for Ariadne she slowly learned that she could trust Arthur. He showed her that he would always have her back not only in dreams but in reality even more so, showed her that he wasn't going anywhere.

Together they chipped at each other's walls until the only one was around the two of them.

**Here my heart knows calm, **

Eventually, with him she had learned to stop waiting to wake up for to see him gone. With him she learned that he wasn't going to leave her, disappear or find someone better. With him she could file away all the insecurities and doubts that had slaughtered and devastated every other relationship and just be herself.

Arthur had already known her; he had already built trust for her. He knew her flaws and he knew her strengths and he hadn't yet pushed her away. Maybe that's what made it easy, effortless, knowing each other.

**Safe in your soul**

She was safe with him. Safe in her own skin, her own thoughts and her own opinions.

It was amazing to know that after a stressful day Arthur could take all of that away – send it from her unlike when she was alone. He could distract her or talk with her. Talk with each other. Because he knew her, he knew how she coped and how she didn't. He knew when she needed a shoulder or space.

She could be herself. They both could.

She never had to change for him.

**Bathed in your sight**

With the way he was looking at her nothing else mattered. She held his gaze and tried to focus on nothing else. Tried to forget the pain, the burning, the knives; forget it all and focus on him.

His eyes full of promises and hopes and dreams of everything she wanted and everything that she was afraid to lose. She never used to be afraid, never used to be scared, not of this.

But then again she had never had so much to lose.

But it was hard. And it was only getting harder and more difficult. To keep her eyes open, to stop the darkness that was creeping in, that was slowly pulling her away. Her eyes felt heavy, everything felt heavy like she was made of lead, and more than anything she was so tired.

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**I just want to say a massssssive thank you to everyone who reviewed. Seriously thank you it certainly made my last couple of days! **

**I hope you guys enjoy this chapter I'm still trying to work out what I'm doing in terms of how long this is going to be or if I should keep it short and shiny. Any thoughts?**

**Please Review!**

**Thanks : )**


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